When the Detroit Lions beat the Green Bay Packers, 40-10, to spoil Thanksgiving Day all across Wisconsin and beyond, what were the odds that the Packers would still win the NFC North?

Detroit’s blowout win moved them to 7-5 on the season, with four games remaining and just one would-be playoff team to face — the Eagles. Meanwhile, the loss dropped the still-without-Aaron-Rodgers Packers to 5-6-1.

As it turned out, the Thanksgiving Day Massacre was the last game the Lions would win.

Four straight losses to the Eagles, in a snowstorm, the Giants, the Ravens and the Vikings cost the Lions a playoff spot and head coach Jim Schwartz his job.

Green Bay, after the massacre, beat Atlanta and Dallas, both in comeback fashion, to stay alive in the race and then got Rodgers back for the season final against the Bears in what turned out to be a winner-take-all for the division title.

Rodgers last-minute touchdown pass to Randall Cobb gave the Pack the title and sent the Bears home with the Lions.

This year there figures to be another good battle for NFC North supremacy, and with new head coach Jim Caldwell replacing the inept Schwartz, the Lions have the best chance they have had in years.

Green Bay, which has won three straight division titles and was a wild-card team the two years prior to that, isn’t going away, however.

With Rodgers back from the broken collarbone that kept him out of action for seven-plus weeks, the Packers remain the team to beat.

It’s not just Rodgers on the Packers offense that defenses have to worry about anymore.

Rookie of the Year Eddie Lacy and the underrated James Starks make the Packers a very good running team. So when defenses drop two safeties deep to take away some of Rodgers’ options in the passing game, look out for a big dose of Lacy and Starks.

And when defenses dare to take the run away, well, that’s not going to happen.

Green Bay’s problem, as it’s been the past few seasons or since Charles Woodson got old, has been on defense.

Part of it has been keeping its best player Clay Matthews healthy, and the other part has been finding a pass rusher to put on the other side of Matthews.

General manager Ted Thompson may have solved the latter when he signed veteran Julius Peppers as a rare free agent in Titletown.

Peppers isn’t the best defensive end in the game, as he was in Carolina, but if he’s only asked to rush the passer, he may have enough left to cause some havoc and make things easier for a pretty good Packers secondary.

And that secondary better be good, because the rest of the division is loaded with receivers.

The Lions already have the best in the game in Calvin Johnson and added Golden Tate, who Green Bay fans know as the cheater from Seattle who turned both an offensive pass interference penalty and an interception into a game-winning touchdown two years ago, and first-round draft pick tight end Eric Ebron.

Detroit also not only hired a pass-happy head coach in Caldwell, but it brought in Drew Brees’ quarterback coach Joe Lombardi as coordinator.

If quarterback Matthew Stafford doesn’t win this year, he may not get many more chances in Motown.

After a tough start to the schedule, the Lions only play one playoff team (New England) in the second half until they end the season at Green Bay.

Chicago, thanks to its two big receivers Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery, was in on the playoff mix as well last year, but in typical Bears fashion, they lost four of their final six games and their last two, including the winner-take-all against the Packers.

Marc Trestman’s second offseason in Chicago was spent overhauling a defense that allowed 30 points or more seven times last year and never held an opponent under 20.

In those four losses at the end of the season, the Bears defense allowed a total of 152 points. Seattle allowed 231 all season.

So they let Peppers go to the rival Packers and signed Jared Allen from the rival Vikings.

They said good-bye to defensive end Henry Melton and added defensive ends Lamarr Houston from Oakland and Willie Young from Detroit.

They also spent their first three picks and four of their first five picks in the draft on defense, the most notable cornerback Kyle Fuller from Virginia Tech with the 14th overall selection.

Will it be enough? Maybe for a wild-card spot.

Minnesota made a bunch of changes this offseason as well, and for once, they were good ones.

New head coach Mike Zimmer gets his first opportunity to run the show after years as a loyal defensive assistant; and the hiring of Norv Turner to run the offense wasn’t a bad decision. Sure, Turner is abysmal as a head coach, but he’s done well as a coordinator.

Turner’s project will be to get first-round pick Teddy Bridgewater ready to be the team’s franchise quarterback. Because nobody is kidding anyone into thinking Matt Cassel is the answer. And please, don’t bring up Christian Ponder.

If the Vikings are going to get good, it’s going to be because of Bridgewater, and they better hope it happens while Adrian Peterson is still lining up behind him.